SUPPORTING ACTION AND RAISING AWARENESS FOR MORE THAN FOUR DECADES
Since its inception in 1974, World Environment Day has developed into a global platform for
raising awareness and taking action on increasingly urgent issues from marine pollution and
global warming to sustainable consumption and wildlife crime. Millions of people around the
world have been motivated by the ‘people’s day’ for action, and are increasingly weaving
their activities into a global movement through the expanding WED website and social
media.

1972 - 1982
UN designates June 5 as World Environment Day in 1972; two years later, WED is
celebrated for the first time under the slogan “Only One Earth.”

1972
The UN General Assembly designates June 5 as World Environment Day (WED),
marking the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another
resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, leads to the creation of UNEP.

1974
WED is celebrated for the first time with the slogan “Only One Earth.”

1977
UNEP leverages the day to highlight concern about the ozone layer, setting a trend for
WED to generate vital early support for critical environmental issues. It takes another ten
years to seal the landmark Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

1979
The WED theme “Only One Future for Our Children” coincides with the International
Year of the Child. For the first time, WED formally echoes a UN-designated international
year, a pattern that becomes common as environmental problems rise up the global agenda.

1981
WED draws attention to how toxic chemicals affect groundwater and food chains. The
next year, UNEP’s Governing Council adopts the Montevideo Programme, setting priorities
for global law-making that lead to major international agreements restricting or eliminating an
array of hazardous chemicals and pollutants.

1986
The WED theme “A Tree for Peace” coincides with the International Year of Peace.
Reflecting WED’s growing profile, political and religious leaders including French President
Francois Mitterand, Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni take part in
a “Global Ceremony” by planting a tree and stressing the links between conflict and
environmental destruction.

1987
UNEP marks World Environment Day at its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, by
presenting the first of its Global 500 awards to environmental champions including Wangari
Maathai. The prestigious awards become a mainstay of the annual WED celebrations
through 2003.

1988
WED’s main celebrations begin to rotate around the globe, starting in Bangkok,
Thailand. The theme of “When People Put the Environment First, Development Will Last”
comes a year after the Brundtland Report laid out its influential blueprint for sustainability.

1989
A year after the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
WED celebrations hosted by Brussels, Belgium echo mounting concern about global
warming. The theme will be re-visited more than any other on subsequent WEDs.

1992
WED is held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the UN Conference on Environment and
Development, better known as the Earth Summit. Nations negotiate landmark treaties on
climate change, desertification and biodiversity, and set the course for contemporary
sustainable development.

1993
China hosts WED in Beijing, raising environmental awareness in the world’s most
populous nation, under the theme “Poverty and the Environment - Breaking the Vicious
Circle.” The event will return to China in 2002, hosted by the city of Shenzen.

1995
South Africa hosts WED a year after Nelson Mandela became president. Mandela
attends the formal celebrations, drawing huge international attention to environmental
themes. A year earlier, the anti-apartheid leader used WED to declare South Africa’s Table
Mountain a “gift to the Earth” and a demonstration of his country’s commitment to the
Convention on Biological Diversity.

1996
Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa receives a posthumous Global 500 award during
WED celebrations in Ankara, Turkey. With the award, WED throws a spotlight on the link
between human rights and the environment.

1998
WED spotlights threats to the marine environment for the first time, using the theme of
“For Life on Earth – Save our Seas” in support of the International Year of the Ocean.
Moscow, Russia, hosted the celebrations.

2000
UNEP launches the first fully developed WED website, making it easy for people
around the world to register their activities and building a sense of global community. Main
WED events took place in Adelaide, Australia under the theme “The Environment Millennium
– Time to Act,” ahead of the international summit that set out the Millennium Development
Goals.

2001
Secretary General Kofi Annan chooses WED to formally launch the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment, an international effort to map the health of the planet. Reflecting the
theme “Connect with the World Wide Web of Life,” WED’s international festivities took place
across several cities: Torino, Italy and Havana, Cuba as well as in Hue, Vietnam and
Nairobi, Kenya.

2003 - 2012
People around the world register more than 4,000 WED activities (in 2011) and visit
the website more than 4.25 million times (in 2012); the Arab world and the United
States host WED for the first time; WED draws attention to climate change for three
consecutive years.

2003
The main WED celebrations take place in Beirut, Lebanon, the first time they have
been hosted in the Arab world. The theme of “Water – Two Billion People are Dying for It!” is
chosen in support of the International Year of Fresh Water.

2005
WED is held in North America for the first time, with San Francisco hosting hundreds of
events around the theme “Green Cities: Plan for the Planet.” WED’s profile in the year the
Kyoto Protocol comes into force and the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment is released is
lifted by the participation of former US Vice-President Al Gore and former Mayor of San
Francisco Gavin Newsom.

2006
A decade after the UN Convention to Combat Desertification came into force, WED
delivers a reminder of the pressures on drylands when Algiers, Algeria hosts the
celebrations under the slogan “Deserts and Desertification – Don’t Desert Drylands!”

2007
The theme “Melting Ice? – A Hot Topic”, hosted by Tromsø, Norway, marks the first of
three consecutive years in which WED draws attention to climate change, in the same year
that the Fourth IPCC Assessment Report stated that warming of the climate is unequivocal.

2010
The WED Legacy Initiative raises more than $85,000 for gorilla conservation and solar
lighting in villages across host country Rwanda. WED uses a global online competition to
name several baby gorillas, drawing attention to their threatened status during International
Year of Biodiversity.

2011
The first WED Challenge sees actor Don Cheadle attract more online followers than
supermodel Gisele Buendchen, whose forfeit is to create a forest. The following year, Gisele
plants the first of 50,000 trees in Rio de Janeiro’s Grumari Municipal Park.

2012
Twenty years after the Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil becomes the first city to
host WED for a second time. The WED theme of “Green Economy: Does it Include You?”
amplifies the UNEP-led Green Economy Initiative. The WED website records more than 4.25
million visits, a new record.

2013-PRESENT
WED embraces smaller and less-developed nations while tackling even bigger topics:
from sustainable consumption to the illegal trade in wildlife; the annual day of action
that began more than 40 years earlier goes viral on social media.

2014
The WED theme “Raise Your Voice Not the Sea Level!” builds awareness of the
dangers facing island nations from climate change. The next year, small island states secure
agreement at the Paris climate talks to pursue the ambitious goal of limiting the increase in
average global temperature to 1.5C.

2015
WED goes viral: hosted by Milan, Italy under the theme “Seven Billion People. One
Planet. Consume with Care,” WED is the most popular subject on Twitter in more than 20
countries; more than 500 videos on WED are posted on YouTube, including news clips, TV
documentaries, event footage, music videos and animations.

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